Wachovia Corp. expanded its presence in Orange County with the buy of a majority stake in Newport Beach-based Metropolitan West Capital Management LLC, the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank said Thursday.
Wachovia said it bought a 72% stake in MetWest, which manages $4.5 billion in investments for wealthy and institutional clients. It plans to fold MetWest into its Evergreen Investments unit.
The buy comes after Wachovia closed its $3.9 billion buy of Irvine-based auto lender Westcorp Inc. and its banking unit WFS Financial Inc. earlier this month.
Terms of the MetWest deal weren’t disclosed. MetWest has 35 employees in Newport Beach.
“What we are looking for is a great manager in the large-cap management space that had a cultural fit for us,” said Dennis Ferro, chief executive of Evergreen. “It turned out to be in Orange County.”
Ferro said the remaining 28% stake in MetWest will stay with its three founders: Howard Gleicher, MetWest’s chief investment officer; Gary W. Lisenbee, president; and Steven M. Borowski, managing partner.
The deal is expected to close in the second quarter, Ferro said.
Three years ago, Wachovia bought Metropolitan West Securities, which was affiliated with MetWest. That company specialized in securities lending and managing short-term fixed income investments.
MetWest’s Borowski said that the sale of the company ends its financial ties with main financial backer, Los Angeles-based Metropolitan West Financial LLC .
“When we started the company with Metropolitan West Financial, we had great relations,” he said. “Our intent from day one, and we didn’t know who or when, was we’d supplant our financial partner with a strategic partner. We were contacted by a lot of organizations over the years, but we felt our best partner for our clients was Evergreen.”
